Policies, Procedures and Practices: Does Your Residential Cleaning Company Need a Policy Manual?

Formal policy manuals and employees handbooks are not required by law. However, they provide managers with an excellent opportunity to formalize their vision for managing their business and people. They also provide an impartial way to communicate some of those messages that are difficult to discuss one on one because they appear subjective. The following lists some of the issues you may wish to cover in a handbook or business-wide meeting.

Dress Code: What kind of image do you want your employees to portray to customers reflecting quality and professionalism? Sometimes business casual leans more toward casual than business.

Work Hours, Schedules, Breaks: Consistency is important when it comes to who works when, for how long and who gets paid for which hours. Opening and closing procedures, break and meal period length and pay are just a few of the issues arising in this area. Establishing standards that everyone accepts is much easier than recreating the wheel with every new scheduling incident.

 

Harassment is a hot topic that isn't going away. What one person considers humorous or friendly, another person interprets as offensive and discomforting. Company policy and practice regarding all types of harassment needs standardization in every workplace.

 

Rules of Conduct: Theft, disciplinary processes, absenteeism and tardiness, substance use and abuse, falsification of company documents, customer discourtesy, insubordination,... are just a few of the issues you may encounter with your employees. Although you can "discipline" employees for any written or unwritten policy, communicating the key expectations you have will make work-life much easier for everyone.

 

Safety includes a wide variety of practices and policies -- from how to handle employee injuries and accidents and filing workers' compensation reports, to keeping a constant watch for potential customer and employee safety hazards. Handbook and associate meeting reminders can ensure your busy environment is also a model for safety.

Time Off and corresponding pay issues must be pre-established and handled consistently. This may include inevitable issues related to holiday pay for non-scheduled work days, part-time pro-rating of days off, accruing vacation and sick pay, or what to do when the business closes due to snow. The better prepared you are the fewer headaches you encounter on payday.

Arlene Vernon, PHR, is a professional speaker, consultant and author on maximizing the human resources in your managers and your people. For more information on how HRx can help you achieve the results your organization seeks, contact Arlene today at HRx, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN 55344, 952-996-0975, www.HRxcellence.com.

You may be interested in our Cleaning Company Policy Manual

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